If your Facebook news feed takes precedence over your in-tray, Freedom – a
productivity app that temporarily blocks internet access – could help you
knuckle down

Pay to have your fun taken away? It may seem like a strange and even unpleasant suggestion to pay for an app that bars you from social media sites, but the Freedom app has become phenomenally successful.

Zadie Smith and Dave Eggers have both praised it, and if it’s true that everyone has one novel inside them, maybe this will be the tool to get you on your way!

Facebook and their ilk are useful tools for networking and a great way to communicate – but they can also exacerbate our procrastinating tendencies and drive us to distraction (quite literally).

Some people put locks on their fridge to resist temptation, and in much the same way this app helps boost focus and productivity by barring you from accessing these sites for a time you have set. If nothing else, less time spent procrastinating at work means an earlier leaving time.